| Description | Vivid descriptions of the Alma, where "the Russians were driven out of a very strong position in 3 hours & a half which they had calculated on holding for at least 3 weeks against a hundred thousand men ... from the Russian prisoners who were taken we learnt of their astonishment at our daring. To attack them in front & face a hundred guns in position & 20,000 men was unequalled. There was no hesitation, the columns were brought up, a line formed under a most tremendous fire of grape & round shot & we then advanced having to cross two stone walls, a vineyard full of holes & a river which was up to our necks. The only way I can describe the shot & shell that poured round us is that it was more like a very severe hail storm than anything else, by the time we had crossed the river & formed up under the bank we did muster more than 150 men with killed & wounded." Describes conditions before Sebastopol. "We live in a very bad way here having slept on the bare ground & in the open air ever since we landed in the Crimea, and occasionally very badly off for food. Right glad shall we be when this stronghold gives in. The Russians dare not face us in the open field; behind stone walls where they cannot run away it will be different. Their artillery is very good too. To escape a second time would be too much to hope for. I can only trust that I shall get off with my life." At the Alma "the Russian loss was some 8 thousand killed and wounded, ours3 thousand nearly. When they retreated our guns were brought up & killed them by hundreds. Altogether no more bloody battle was fought in the Peninsular." Hopes to come home "covered in glory" but "I do not think myself that all the glory compensates for the toil, the anxiety of mind & the chance of losing one's best friends & old companions." |